


My Bae Is Fae

by hyukcien



Category: Super Junior
Genre: Adventure, Angst, F/M, Fantasy, Romance, Urban Fantasy, hot fae men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 01:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16231829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyukcien/pseuds/hyukcien
Summary: A girl discovers that Super Junior are Fae.





	1. Chapter 1

A thrilling, seductive story, blending Super Junior and Kpop with faerie lore.  

Until two years or so ago, nineteen-year-old Hera's life was about school and tending the flowers and plants in her grandmother's garden who fills her back with stories of the Fae. Then after the urging of a classmate, she learns about the Korean boyband Super Junior and her number one life goal was suddenly to live in South Korea and meet her idols. Even her strict and eccentric yet loving grandmother also approves of her leaving and whisks her out of their home, giving her cryptic instructions on how to settle in the new country and culture. 

In Seoul, she dwells and works for an absent master of a luxurious apartment suite and then subsequently finds outs her next door neighbor is none other than Super Junior's Eunhyuk. Only he is not at all what his idol image seems to be.  

There is nothing like the reality and realization of ones idol being truly only human that can dampen a fangirl's heart. Suddenly, her previous life with her grandmother was too far away and she misses the stories she can't quite remember anymore.  

As she continues her job and fangirling forrays, her interactions with other idols and her next door neighbor increases. And her feelings for Hyukjae transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful dangerous world of Kpop celebrities...more and more making her remember the lethal, immortal faerie stories her grandmother used to tell.


	2. Before

The man emerged from the Han River at exactly midnight. No one saw him except for the twelve other shadows waiting in the grassy riverbank. This was when the Han River Park was not yet developed and either sides of the river was either filled with pollution and trash or was a mere marshland. Orange streetlights from the Banpo River Bridge illuminated the group.

"Oh Boil Me, isn't that river cold?" an amused voice asked the drenched man and handed him a coat.

The man shook his head.

"Nothing's cold for a half-water wraith," another brusque voice answered. "Are you alright, dear Leader?"

The man motioned his hands and all twelve shadows huddled closer to him. They, too, were all men dressed in the same black trench coats.

"I am as alright as I can be, soldier Kang," the man said to the brusque-voiced Kang, who smiled back.

"The meeting with the waterwraiths led nowhere," the Leader continued. "They couldn't locate her as well. But the wraith elders are positive that she could only be using a powerful spell to hide her tracks. And she's definitely alive to be using that spell. They'd find her if she stops using the spell or when she's dead. The next best thing we could do now is focus on other matters."

"Are we going home, Leader?" someone in the huddle asked.

"We can't go home unless we complete our mission," another voice answered.

"I know, okay! But how can we find someone who refuses to be found? We can't even use our powers here."

"Well, as to that, did you read up on the what I asked you, Gen?" the Leader asked.

The one called Gen stood in attention and nodded. "The Thirteenth Council's Laws as consecrated on the Great Cauldrom, revision 1615 states: "Fae laws and its enforcement striclty applies in the Fae realm. Moreover, fae may not use their abilities towards humans. Fae who travel to the human realm unsanctioned by the High Fae Commander are not permitted to return to the Fae realm. Fae who travel to the human realm sanctioned by the High Fae Commander may use their abilities towards other fae only."

"Thank you, Gen," the Leader interrupted. "I'm sure that was all self-explanatory to everyone.

"This is a different world, the human realm, my fellow royal guards. We've only been here for a few days and we stick out like eyesores. Our princess is an intelligent woman. How she continues to elude us proves that. But we ourselves are targets now. If, for example, we find her now and the Queen's agents also tracks us, we are leading the heir to danger.

"We need to find a way to walk about this realm freely without question as to why we are meeting young women frequently. Human cultural mores regarding male and female interactions are vastly archaic. We have a lot to learn if we want to do this right in the human way without detection from human authorities, from other Fae, and most importantly, from the heir herself. Any suggestions on how we can do that?"

Someone from behind the huddle coughed too loudly, too obviously, then piped up: "I know how, Leaderssi?!"

"You do not have to cough like that, youngling," A new amused voice said, then giggled.

"Yes, Yuntak?" the Leader asked.

The younger soldier bowed and when he stood up straight again, he looked at the leader and beamed a gummy smile that evolved into a mischievous smirk. "We become stars."

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. One

            Suddenly remembering Grandmother Honey’s stories about Fae men traveling to the human world to find lost Fae women, eventually winning their hearts only to find out that the women were only human, and then eventually killing them sent shivers to her already cold limbs. Hera doesn’t know what brought about such memories as she continued rubbing her hands together, then tucking them back to her hot pack-lined pockets. She surveyed her surroundings and could already find more than fifty other girls in various states of hypothermia. They were all waiting for the Inkigayo pre-recording to start.

            “Argh! This is your entire fault, Hera,” Jin cried beside her. “Your paranoia of being late caused me to forget my I ♥ Siwon banner!”

            “I’m so sorry, Jin,” she told her bestfriend who was now squatting in the pavement. “Besides, we aren’t allowed to bring banners inside.”

            Jin looked up at her, at first pouting, and then smiled: “You owe me then.”

            Hera rolled her eyes at her friend. “Not again.”

            “It’s not a blind date this time, I promise,” the girl explained, now standing closer to her. “And besides, you owe me and Siwon can’t notice me because of that…” Then hesitatingly added: “… and because you look so sad. It’s been, what, five years, Hera!”

            There is no use trying to shush Jin when she gets into this mood. Her bestfriend still thinks that Hera’s inactiveness in the local dating social circle is due to a previous broken relationship. There is no use dispelling her best friend’s beliefs so she just gave her standard answer for the past five years. “I have Super Junior, what more do I need?”

            Jin smiled conspiratorially at that. “I know right! Siwon is just so hot! And our bias, well, is another kind of hot!”

            The two both shrieked at that for reasons only fangirls can comprehend. They were both jumping and giddy when the fan staff announced that they could now all go inside the studio. The two held hands as they went in, Jin squeezing Hera’s hand, looking intently into her eyes.

            “It’s a party near Konkuk station and the rest of the gang will be there,” she said. “Tomorrow night.”

            Maybe that was why her grandmother’s Fae stories have been plaguing her lately. Those stories were essentially love stories and her best friend was right about the five-year-gap since her last “relationship”.  Maybe it was time to go ‘out there’ and really experience a human single life. But her friend does not have to know about the latter.

            “’Kay, I’ll be there,” she told Jin, and the two sped-walked to the front of the stage, the prime spots for seeing their KPop idols. Their Super Junior.

 

 

***

 

The phone call came during Super Junior’s recording of Devil.  Her felt her phone vibrating through her jacket pocket that even Jin who was standing closely on her right felt it. They both know that know that mobile phones aren’t allowed during recordings so the two just let it be and continued on their fan chants.

            It was almost ten in the morning when the recording ended and only after having eaten brunch that she remembered about the calls. She dug up her phone from her front pocket and gasped.

            Twenty-three missed calls and five voice mail messages. All from her grandmother. What could she have called about? Perhaps some grocery item or flowerpot replacement for her garden, Hera thought.

            She set the phone on loudspeaker mode and stuffed a lettuce-wrapped rice ball into her mouth before pressing play.

            “Eversummer Lena Heranelle, I need you home right now. Come home right away and find me in the garden.” Her gran’s voice was the same throaty shrill, calm and old-grandmother-y.

           Jin listened on with her as she played the rest of the messages. “You sure she’s okay?” she asked. “Want me to go home with you?”

            The rest of her grandmother’s messages were the same, word for word, and tone.

            “She probably just wants me to see her newly-bloomed roses. Granma can be dramatic,” she told Jin, shrugging. Her bestfriend has heard about Gran over the fast years but the two have never actually met. Gran knows about Jin too, but one of her eccentric ways is not allowing any visitors in their apartment and she seldom leaves the house so that two never met.

            There was no real reason to hurry back home but since Jin and Hera have already finished eating, the two left the samgyupsal diner and walked to the nearest bus station.

            “So, see you tomorrow night?  It’s just all casual, right?” Hera asked as the two settled on the empty seats at the back of the bus.

            Jin looked at Hera as if unbelieving of her friend’s questions. “I thought you were purposely not talking about it, to make me forget!”

            “I promised, didn’t I? Don’t you want me to come” Hera pretended to roll her eyes. She knows she deserves Jin’s reaction for the countless of times that she ditched her bestfriend on things like this.

            Her bestfriend clapped her hands and stood up as the bus slowed down. They’ve already reached Jin’s stop.

            “You won’t regret this Eversummer Lena Heranelle,” she waved goodbye, sashaying her way out of the bus.

            Hera leaned back in her seat as the bus pulled out of the stop. Just as suddenly she realized that Jin just called her with her full name. She could only have learned that from her grandmother’s voicemail messages earlier. Only that her grandma never uses her full name when addressing her, except when – she is in trouble.

            Hera grabbed her backpack and ran out the bus doors as soon as it reached her stop. Their apartment was a tiny standalone home located in the outskirts of Seoul’s mazelike suburbs. She needed to get home fast.

            But her grandmother wasn’t home when she arrived. Hera proceeded to the small plot garden at the back of the house and instead found an envelope on the garden bench.

            The letter read: _“House will be sold by the end of month. Stay-in house sitter and gardener needed at 80F Songpa Towers, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Report Monday at 10 am. Will contact you when I get back. Love, granma”_

 

 

 

 

 


	4. Two

 

 

 Nothing was new about Grandmother leaving all of a sudden. Ever since I lived with her some nine years ago, she almost always had to travel either for work or to ‘soul search’, her term not mine a couple of times a year and not taking me along with her. It was fine with me since I enjoy being left alone at home and she always made sure that I have all the food and extra money I needed while she was away.  And in the last few years, the times that she had to travel for work I had spent them following my idols around. So it was a win-win situation.

            This time, something just did not sit right with me since all she left was a note. I was still reeling from Grandmother’s sudden departure and the location of my new workplace that I almost forgot about Jin’s party. I briefly debated whether I should go or not. But this made me feel more morose and guiltier due to the fact that I made a promise to my bestfriend and perhaps this will be our last fangirl bonding moment before I start my new job.

            “How could this house have managed to escape massive urbanization,” I mused as Jin and I located our destination.

            The party was located in a street in uptown Seoul, a two-storey house nestled between skyscrapers. It was near the Konkuk University station and every establishment in the area was at least ten stories high.

            “So, it’s basically just a house-sitting job,” Jin asked, continuing our conversation since we met up at the train station. The low bass sound has become more noticeable through night air as we rang the doorbell. “How does the house look like? I hear Songpa’s high-end. So you’re living there from now on?”

            “The owner will return soon I think and I will have to be a domestic slave before then because that place is so dusty,” I told her, thinking of the state of the apartment suite when I first arrived. It reeked of mothballs and other things I don’t want to think about just now. “But for now, let’s party!”

            Jin beamed at that, pulling me deeper into the house. It is my first grown-up party in five years where the attendees are not all KPop fans. Idol fans’ parties tend to be tamer, in my opinion, in terms of booze quantity. But here, people are already congregating on the large liquor cooler placed right in the middle of the house.

            It’s also a lot brighter inside the house, all the lights were on, there was loud music, soju shot glasses being distributed among party-goers sitting around the dining table like they have their own drinking ceremony apart from the beer chugging ones, and others were already dancing. The place somehow did not have the dimly lit, wilder variety that I once experienced more than five or so years ago.

            While lost on my thoughts, Jin has already placed a soju shot glass in one of her hand, and a hamburger in another. I didn’t realize that she was leading me into the house’s kitchen.

            “There’s hamburger here?” I asked.

            “Only for you. You should eat first,” Jin pushed the hamburger towards my mouth, urging.

            I took a bite, chewed, and cringed as I watched Jin drink her soju, bottoms up. I’ve always wondered how people could stomach soju. It takes like denatured alcohol.

            Jin chuckled and left the kitchen. “That reminds me. I should get you the flavored one, little baby.”

            She returned with a big plastic cup full of pink liquid. “Just strawberry-flavored rum. Yum.”

            I groaned. “It was things like this that did me in last time.”

            “Did you in?” Jin laughed loudly.

            “I was dizzy every time I moved!” I protested as I sipped from the cup. “You said it was mild stuff and… I only drank a bottle….”

            “Precisely! You were never drunk, just momentarily dizzy because you sat so straight, not even dancing or talking to others.”  This was always how Jin justified my actions, or lack thereof, that night. Jin always teased me for my self-diagnosed pink rum intolerance.

            Just then a girl with bright pink hair came into the kitchen and strode towards Jin and me. Her face looked familiar – probably from the fandom since most fans would copy their idol’s newest hair colors.

            “We’re playing the seven minutes game,” she announced to everyone in the room but faced just Jin and me. “Be in the living room in five minutes.”

            “Seven minutes game?”

            Jin and the pink-haired girl looked at each other.

            “She’s new,” Jin told the girl.

            “Ooh, lots of new ones today,” Pink hair briefly looked at me, then said to Jin: “Don’t tell her yet.”

            The girl exited the kitchen right after, her voice echoing through the hallways as she made her announcement anew. Jin and I followed out to the living room where another boy and girl approached us with pieces of paper, a pen, and two plastic kitchen bowls.

            “I guess you’ve figured it out?” Jin sighed as we threaded through the crowd heading towards the windows overlooking the house’s backyard.

            I shook my head in disbelief that a bunch of emerging adults are playing this game. But I was smiling while I drank from the pink rum cup in my hands. “It’s a raffle. The two, a girl and boy I presume, who get chosen… will have seven minutes in heaven.”

            I laughed loudly as the words registered in my brain. “It’s a teenage American party game. I saw that once in a movie. Why’re we playing this? It’s ridiculous!”

            “No, it’s not. It is fun!” Jin countered.

            “It’s a good thing then that I’m not lucky in raffles,” I said, slumping into the window wall.

            Jin only looked at me with pretend-sad eyes.

            “Well, it’s a good thing that I am,” she said wistfully. “Because I put your name in both our papers.”

            I rolled my eyes at her. Well, that may be the case but what are the chances of her name being called in among a room of like thirty plus girls?

            “I am very lucky in these things, Hera. You know that,” Jin said. I looked at my friend closely. Of the past five years that I have known her, I never remember any time that she did not win any raffle contest. We have been in too many random-draw fansign events together to not realize that she was really incredibly lucky in these things.

            Suddenly, I was afraid. “What have you done?”

            “It’s just first base,” Jin answered in a mock whisper.

            “I’m not doing that with a stranger inside a cupboard,” I hissed back. “Arghhgh!” I knew there was no escaping it now.

            Jin flashed another one of her mischievous smiles and said: “Who says the Korean seven minutes version requires a cupboard?”

            My eyes widened, and then my name was called.

 

☼


	5. Three

 

"Okay, rules," the pink-haired girl she saw from the kitchen earlier said. "You two need to be inside the circle for seven minutes."

She pointed to the less than one foot diameter circle chalked in the floor in front of us. Then proceeded to position the guy and me inside it.

Pink-haired girl nodded to our direction, then whispered: "You don't have to kiss the entire seven minutes, of course, you need to breathe. But you need to kiss. For the crowd. And you can't get out of the circle until time's up."

"But..." I tried to say something.

The girl has already turned to the crowd, shouting. "Timer starts now!"

I found myself staring absentmindedly at the guy's lips, the room around us united in cajoling us to kiss. The chalk circle is too small for the two of us that I was aware of the proximity of this body to mine, afraid that I would fall over him.

"Is this your first time?" the lips said.

My gaze darted to the guy's eyes. Taking the full picture in, I realized he was smirking. 

"So can't find a willing girl to kiss you aside from playing a kid's game in an adult party?" I raised my brows with retort. 

The guy just blinked back at me, positively shamed and clueless what to do about it since were both stuck inside a chalk circle. He bit his lower lip, pouting. He looked cute, at that moment, at least.

I tiptoed closer, placing my two hands in his forearms. "Let's just play this game, okay?" I whispered, then proceeded to plant a short, chaste peck on his lips.

But before I could lean back, pink-haired girl was back at our sides and tipped both our heads together. My lips landed with an unelegant splat right back into the guy's lips.

The pink-haired girl held both our heads together, not allowing us to move away. "You've six minutes more to go and better make it count," she said.

_Or what?!!?_ I tried to convey the anger in my eyes since my mouth was still plastered over the other guys'. And the nerve! He began trying to tilt his head, as if trying to pull me into the kiss. 

The pink-haired girl seemed to sense the question behind my glare that she moved closer to my left ear and whisphered: "Or it wouldn't be fun at all, Your Highness."

I didn't notice the girl removing her hands from the back of my head. I didn't notice the red and blue lights gleaming through the porch windows. I didn't notice all the other partygoers scramble to their feet and out of the house. I didn't notice my kissing partner break away from our kiss-splat and attempt to flee on his own. I didn't notice him turn back to me as my fingers were still gripping his forearms.

I only noticed him again after he lightly tapped the sides my face with his warm fingers.

"The police are here to break-up the party. Shit. We need to hide. Shit. Was my kiss that good?!" The guy said in a rush. I realized that we were the only ones left in the living room. I could now hear the heavy footsteps coming in from the hall.

"Shit! No!" I exclaimed, and literally jumping back into my sane self. "Stars, no!" I said again, shaking my head as his last few words registered. "I need to..."

"We need to hide," the guy finished my sentence, motioning me to follow him towards the kitchen at the back of the house. But the door didn't lead outside. Instead, it was a storage closet filled with cleaning equipment.

I proceeded to the corner near the small vent and sat on the floor space right under it. The other guy leaned against the door after locking both of us in. I do not know how he found the door key but he laid it on the small space between us.

The door behind him rattled as we could hear the police mutter in exasperation at the locked door but judging by the sounds of his footsteps, he eventually moved away from the door. The police car was still outside the house when I peeked through the vent. I informed the guy about this and continued staring at the dark walls. I could go on for long periods of time not speaking to anyone at all. But apparently, this guy couldn't. I could feel him plucking up the courage to do so. It was a good thing that we were in a dark room and I couldn't just out-stare him.

"So, um... My name's Jay," the guy said. "Jay. Is my name."

I couldn't fully see his face in the dark but judging from the shadows that the faint light made on his face as he said his name, I realized that he a very defined jaw. It made his shadowed face more manly and something else.

"Thank you for helping me evade the police, Jay," I replied right away. If it wasn't for him, I'd still be dumbstruck in the middle of that living room and caught. Grandma wouldn't be happy and my new boss would fire me. "Really, thank you. If it weren't for your quick thinking, I'd still stand rooted and scared of the poilice in that freaking circle."

Jay chuckled. "I thought you weren't getting enough of my lips."

I grimaced, I thought we both have already forgotten about that unfortunate incident. "I swear if I see that pink-haired ..."

"I would thank you her!" Jay finished my sentence. 

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please."

"And I wouldn't have met you, uh... 'Princess', right? Your name's Princess."

I looked at this guy who says his name is Jay but could well be lying straight to my face and shook my head. I shook my head so hard that I think I may have dislocated it, just as long as I could stop what this guy was going to say next.

"I think that Pink-Haired girl called you Princess," he said, confusion all over his face. "Didn't she?"

"No," The girl didn't call me Princess. I thought I misheard it too. I thought I could repress her words but I stood rooted in my place upon hearing them just some minutes ago. I thought I could escape. I wanted to tell this guy named Jay that the Pink-Haired girl actually called me Your Highness. Yet I cannot. Because it's all the same in the end. I am in trouble.

I stood up, looked through the vent again, and this time found the police car driving away from the house. Jay stood beside me, also looking through the vent.

"It's time to go," he said, and I nodded in agreement.

Together, we alked out of the closet. In the kitchen, we found the party host, a lanky guy, hauling two big garbage bags presumably trash collected from various parts of the house.

"Best party, right? Police only caught two or three people who were already passed out," The guy chatted excitedly.

Jay handed him the closet key. "Thanks, bro. Great party, indeed!"

"In summer. I'll host another one," the houseowner said. "You two should come. It's an annual thing. Your seven minutes performance was the bomb you guys!"

I groaned. "Performance?"

Unbelievable. How could they think of that as a performance? I walked out of the kitchen, out of the house, while fumbling over my jacket to find my smartphone and hailed a cab on Uber.

"So, goodbye, Princess!" A voice called from the house's main door.

I flinched and gradually turned around, already knowing who it was. I was shaking my head as he made his way towards the sidewalk outside the party house where I was standing.

"My name's Hera," I told him.

"Hera," he repeated, smiling. Then, he reached out to shake my hand. "Thanks for your kisses tonight, Hera."

His grip was strong, his hand soft. And when he put out his other hand to cover the other hand he was shaking, I found them both warm and inviting.

"You're ever welcome, Jay," I muttered, removing my hand from his grip just as fast. "See you never."

The Uber cab has arrived and I slipped into the night, never glancing back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

☼


	6. Four

 

 

 

 

Grandmother still hasn't contacted me after a fortnight of housesitting and I was getting bored and worried at the same time. For a high-class condo unit, the wifi at the 80th floor does not work. I have repeatedly told the former housesitter about it and she just shrugged saying the wifi never worked here. Now, two weeks later, the old sitter is gone, I'm wifi-less, and left to solely care for a house and an entire rooftop garden. 

 

I didn't know about the garden until yesterday which was Ahjumma Sandi's last day. I don't even know any real gardening. It was grandmother who always 'gardened', and I was left with the cleaning and watering. I tried to tell Ahjumma Sandi about this but she just told me it'll be alright and for me to just use common sense and to haul the fertilizer she last bought which are now waiting at the basement. Ahjumma Sandi did not even tell me why she was leaving this job.

 

It turns out, the fertilizer was not of commercial-grade quality. Instead it was a dozen sacks of fresh cow manure. The basement guard-on-duty was relieved to see me start hauling a sack to my wheelbarrow. He complained that the smell was starting to spread all over the underground parking lot. He did help me haul one sack to the barrow and pushed it towards the elevator, but he couldn't leave the basement unguarded. Good thing the sacks weren't that heavy and I only have to push the wheelbarrow for a few meters once I reach the rooftop.

 

What was unforgivable was the smell. It lingered clothes, my hair, my skin, and I think, even my soul. You sort of become immune to it though, you don't notice it anymore or you just somehow trick your mind to believe you've slathered Chanel No. 5 all over your body. 

 

It would have all worked out fine. Except when it didn't. All because the elevator door opened on the second floor on my last fertilizer haul, and Lee-Freakin-Hyukjae stepped inside the metal contraption. His hands automatically flew to cover his nostrils, his eyes widening (as if in pain) to size of pennies, his mouth clamped shut, his feet involuntarily stepping towards the note closed elevator doors.

 

Worse, he was with his family. All sporting the same reaction. All contributing to my early demise from spontaneous combustion related to noxious embarrassment inhalation.

 

"I get off at the rooftop," were my last words.

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The disaster of finally meeting my idol in a non-mediated serendipitous manner has only happened two hours ago and I could not stop sniffling and cringing in embarrassment. I was at the rooftop garden I was supposed to tend. The sacks of cow manure have been locked away inside the small shed on the far side of the garden to help me forget about recent events. But it was not doing anything good to alleviate my state of mind.

 

"Maybe he won't recognize me," I muttered.

 

"Of course he won't recognize me. He doesn't even know me! Right?! Right!!" Sniff. Sniff. "I'll forever be the smelly fertilizer girl in his recent memory. Argh ever smelly fangirl!"

 

I even texted Jin about my run-in with Lee Hyukjae but, so far, all she kept texting back were LOL-ing gifs and emojis. I blocked her calls then. Even if the elevator incident has been a disaster, at least I now know where he and his family lives. And that's right here in Songpa Towers! They were too comfortable (Well, as comfortable as they could be given the circumstances) in the building so that rules them out as visitors. Besides, there was no one else guiding them to the 75th floor.

Perhaps I should just relish this piece of newly-discovered information about my idol. I should concentrate on the happy side and not dwell too much in the embarrassing things. Moreover, I should concentrate on verifying Gran's whereabouts. It's not unusual for her to be gone for many days without updates but it has been two weeks and she has never been fine for that long before.

 

And yeah, remember that Lee Hyukjae doesn't know me. Lee Hyukjae does not know the smelly fertilizer girl inside the elevator. He does not know me!

 

"He does not know the smelly fertilizer girl!!" I shouted to the bushes across me.

 

"Excuse me, would you please keep it down," a voice commanded from my right and my lips stuck together in surprise.

 

I'm busted, I thought. Again, I long to form words to explain and to apologize to this stranger utter lack of decorum.

 

I knew I got to carried away. But when I turned around, I saw that it was the guy who kissed me at the party two weeks or so ago.

 

"You!" I managed to shriek.

 

"Yes, me," the guy mocked. "And everyone in this rooftop garden now knows who the smelly fertilizer girl is!"

 

His tone, somehow, just irritated me.

 

"This is a public place for all tower residents and I can do whatever I want," I told him off.

 

But the guy didn't back down. "Didn't your parents tell you that your actions have consequences? You could do whatever you want as long as it doesn't infringe on other people's rights. And my right for a peaceful moment in s rooftop garden has been been sorely trodden upon."

 

I whirled back to the guy. Who was he to talk to me about rights and responsibilities? 

 

"You do not know me, Mister," I pointed a finger at his face. My emotions in revolt. "Stop telling me to keep quiet because I won't!"

 

I didn't realize I was shouting at the top of my lungs at this point. All I saw was a guy I barely knew and I badly want to strangle him to death. Just barely two feet in front of me, I saw his face register a sudden wariness — a sense of surprise, maybe.

 

Then he bowed. "My apologies, my lady. My behavior was inexcusable. It won't happen again."

 

The guy began to turn away as I looked at him in the eye, trying to deduce his sincerity. That momentary eye contact flooded my senses with sudden calm and ease, understanding and lightness, giddiness and understanding, and calm blue skies, and understanding. I blinked and I found myself sitting on a rooftop bench clutching the metal seats on either side on my legs. 

 

What did that guy just do? The realization hit me along with the desire to find out if it was true or not. I ran down the stairs and into the elevator landing.

 

 

 

***

 

  
Lee Hyukjae did not know what possessed him to march up to the rooftop. But the moment he saw the smelly fertilizer girl shouting about not being known by Lee Hyukjae, he knew knew why.

 

Stars, the Cauldron had plans he could see simmering up its lid.

 

The girl indeed smelled like the cow manure she was hauling earlier; but, most importantly, there was another faint trace of something else there — something fae. 

 

So when he told, compelled more like, to please shut up, the girl remarkably resisted it, albeit with some difficulty. And then he he had to up his hand and forced the girl to sit and calm down. He saw the girl visibly struggling to maintain here own train of thought. 

 

Then he decided to bolt because he recognized she was the same girl he couldn't stop kissing at a part two weeks ago. He thought that the girl was another distant fae-related human who took care of the rooftop garden. Yet now, he sees the girl to be more fae than he could admit. What that girl is doing in the human realm could only mean trouble again. Why is the elevator taking too long?

 

It was too late. He could already hear approaching footsteps — someone was running towards the elevator landing. He wants to close the elevator doors —

 

"Wait!" The girl finally reached the door and was now heavily panting. "He... I know what you are... Grandmother ... fae... please."

 

"What?" Hyukjae asked cruising his arms, trying to fake impatience and non-understanding for he knew too well where this is leading. He did not want to look at the girl's face but it was all he could see. 

 

The girl's hair had been dyed platinum blonde and the black roots were already showing. Her dark brown eyes are as piercing and distant as ever. She did not smile.

 

"I know you are fae,"she said, then with those pleasing dark eyes: "Please I need you to help look for my Gran. She's been gone for more than two weeks and I suspect that bad fae kidnapped her."

 

Hyukjae whistled. "Whatever you're sniffling, lady, you've got to give that up."

 

"But please... I know you tried to compel me earlier and... and last Saturday too, at the party... I... I could report you to the Fae Council.

 

He laughed. The Fae Council on the human realm is as helpful as a No Parking sign in Hongdae's Car Street. It is just there to ease the mind of fae exiles and denizens but it does nothing to benefit them. After all, exiled faes can never come back.

 

"Are you sure you are well? Maybe I should take you to the clinic. Come on, lady," Hyukjae said as he punched the elevator buttons for the ground floor clinic.

 

"Yah! Please, I'm only asking you to take a look at where I last saw her. I just need confirmation. If I was fae, I wouldn't be begging you like this, Mister," the girl explained. "My name is Hera Song. I know you can help me. I'm sorry I can't look at you in the eye because you may compel me again or... I know you are fae because my Gran told me stories about the Fae world since I was a child. Please, Mister."

 

Hera. The name fits her.

 

"He — Hera, I really am not fae, okay?" Hyukjae emphasized again. "Maybe, if your Gran is missing, you should go to the police. Missing Person Report, you know that?"

 

The girl named Hera eyed him from head to toe. Gone was the frantic and pleasing girl earlier. Hyukjae realized that he must have convinced her of his non-faeness.

 

"Actually, I haven't done that," Hera said, tentatively. "Mister, as you have suggested, will you please drive me to the police station instead? I don't have a car."

 

"Uh — okay, sure," Hyukjae replied, thinking that perhaps he will finally get this girl off his back after a trip to the police station.

 

"Great! Thanks! Mr — sorry, I forgot,"

 

"Jay Lee, just call me Jay," Hyukjae answered while making sure his glamour is not working or he will surely be recognized by this girl.

 

"Thanks, Jay-ssi, I need to get my wallet and Gran's identification card for the police. Let's just meet at the parking lot in fifteen minutes. Is that alright?"

 

And she can still be bossy. "Okay, see you then." 

 

Hera stopped the elevator at the 46th floor to catch another elevator going up. Just as she was about to get out, Hyukjae remarked: 

 

"Aren't you worried I won't be at the parking lot in fifteen minutes?"

 

Hera smiled. "Nah. I know fae keeps their promises."

 

Hyukjae remained dumbstruck as Hera finally got out of the elevator and the doors closed. What has he gotten into?

 

It wasn't a new question. It was just that it was nearly ninety years ago since he last asked himself that same question about Eversummer Song Heranelle.

 

And he found her at last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***


End file.
